James Anderson just became a Splinter Cell, and when his first mission involves infiltrating Area 51, the NSA learns a deadly secret that could jeopardize National Security in one of the worst ways possible.

James immediately scanned
the room with his keen eyesight, anything dangerous he would pick up
in moments, suddenly he pushed himself away from the tank into a
corner where he crouched in the shadows. The suit was specially
designed, pure black and fiber optics to absorb any light that could
penetrate the shadow, oh yes, it wouldn't make him completely
invisible but with the way it was designed, as long as he remained
still within a shadow he could remain nearly invisible to the naked
eye.

"Trouble." James
pushed the subdermal, it was the part of the communication device
that had been implanted into behind his right ear, the subdermal
clicked one as he spoke. Lambert immediately came with a reply,

"We're not in such
calm water's either, Anderson. It appears Area 51 has determined
hackers are in the network, we cut the connection before it could be
traced back. We're unable to help you and your OPSAT's map won't be
updated."

"I'm in here like a
blind man?"

"Precisely. Until we
can connect again you're on your own. Anna is working on it."

"Damn it!" James
grumbled, "Anymore bad news?"

"Not unless you have
some."

"Except for the
camera over the door, not really."

"Then find that
agent."

"What could he or she
need?"

"Schematics, I'd have
to say. Area 51, contrary to popular belief isn't harboring any
aliens, but it is the home of most the gear you're using right now,
including the goggles."

"Great, so if that
agent escapes we're looking at duplicated Government technology."

"Exactly. Make sure
that agent doesn't get any of the schematics for anything being
worked on."

"Alright, James out."
He clicked the subdermal off and hugged the wall the rotating camera
was on.

When the time was right he
kept close to the wall, but continued toward the camera and the door,
he was partially afraid, he usually was trained in low-light
conditions, and sometimes trained in heavy light conditions but they
usually included plenty of shadows to hide in and back areas to
enter. He was in a fully lit base with hundreds of guards trained to
shoot to kill, no additional support from Third Echelon and he had no
map to go by, this was the most dangerous mission he'd ever been
on...and this was his first officially mission to begin with. He
heard two voices coming up, he held his breath hoping they weren't
trying to enter the water filtration room. The room itself was fairly
large, about 56 square feet by 42 square feet, the middle of the room
was covered by the large water tank which the filtration nearly
finished it's run, pipes and air ducts led out of the room but none
were at a height he could reach to climb through, they were mostly 18
feet above him. He only saw one camera as he exited the tank, he had
hoped the camera hadn't spotted him.

"We're on high alert,
you know that right?" The first guard spoke, he sounded older
than the second guard,

"I'm not stupid, of
course I know that. Someone found their way inside."

"They can't find him,
he's been here for almost four hours now."

"Why not just sound
the alarm? Spook him out?"

"Because, think about
it, if he thinks we know, he'll bolt and kill as many as he can on
his way out."

"We have M4s, you
really think he can escape alive?"

"He found his way
inside didn't he?" The conversation faded between the two
soldiers as they turned a corner away from the Filtration Room.

"We heard, they're on
high alert without alarms, that means they know someone is inside and
will be searching for you."

"If I sound the alarm
that'll bring the agent out of hiding, won't it?"

"We can't risk doing
that, your mission hasn't changed."

"And the access to
the system?"

"We're working on it,
they've put up additional support against intruders. Anna is our
brightest and best, she'll find a way in. Wait."

The conversation paused
for a few moments,

"We're in. Anna found
a way and is masking our presence, hopefully we can stay in longer
this time. She's working on fixing up a loop to their camera feed
which will keep you safe, if worse comes to worse we'll disconnect
the generators to the base and leave it in darkness."

The troubles, it seemed,
only just began, the entire room went dark as did the entire base,
flashes of red bounced off James' body and a female voice came over
the intercom,

"Red Alert. A soldier
has been found dead. Use lethal force against any intruders, we are
on high alert Delta, shoot anything that is not one of us. Lethal
force is authorized, shoot to kill."

"We're authorizing
the use of firearms, but LTL only," Less-Than Lethal, as long as
the enemy wasn't killed it was alright. The special ammo for the
SC-20K had been, for the most part LTL, including the Adhesive
Electrocuting Bullet Rounds, or affectionately named "Sticky
Shockers", they stuck onto the body of an enemy and electrocuted
them unconscious for several hours. The "Sticky Camera" had
knockout gas activated by self-destructing the camera, when used it
could knock out a soldier for up to 45 minutes to an hour, depending
on size and how much gas had been inhaled. His final LTL ammo had
been airfoils, small and round rings which, if hit in the head, can
knock a guard unconscious for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, hitting
someone in the chest could potentially kill in a slow manner, by
damaging the lungs and allowing fluid to build up in them, one had to
be careful with the airfoil rings.

"We're going to knock
out the power to the entire base as well as disconnect the camera
footage, we'll make it appear as an inside job. Now that the agent
has been fully compromised, we may as well take advantage."

"Alright," James
spoke, "Soon as I find the agent I'll knock him unconscious."
He clicked the subdermal and grabbed onto his standard issue CQC army
knife. With it's 5 inch blade and comfortable handle, it made it a
handy weapon to carry on him. It was sharpened so of it came down to
using it, it wouldn't take much effort.

James noticed the lights
were down, he hugged the wall and ensured he wasn't spotted by the
camera just in case they hadn't shut the system down yet. Once
outside in the hallway, he spotted two choices for directions, unsure
of where to go, he activated his OPSAT and marked the current
location with a blue dot, so when he was to be extracted he could
find his way back quickly. He clicked on NightVision and headed
towards the left hallway, he peeked around the corner and noticed 7
armed guards coming towards him, he noticed they didn't have
flashlights or nightvision / thermal gear and they were sweeping the
area. He realized he had no way to avoid them because of the way they
were positions in a lineup, one in the middle and 3 on each side. The
guards would make sure no one would bypass them.

James had two choices,
return to the water infiltration room or make another attempt to get
by them, he looked back to see three more guards also without any
form of nighttime gear in the same formation heading towards him,
Damn it, looks like I'm out of options. He
looked up to see a thin pipe hanging above him, he couldn't jump to
reach it but he hoped his skills as an athlete would pay off. He
backed up against the opposite wall then ran forward, he placed his
left foot on the wall and pushed upward, placing his right foot above
the left foot, he could feel gravity trying to push him back down but
he couldn't give up. His boots were specially made for traction and
to resist slippage against any sort of liquid or surface, so they
hugged the wall tightly as he moved his left foot above his right
foot and pushed off the wall towards the center of the hallway,
gravity was pushing him downward but he used his gloved hands to grip
tightly into the hanging pipe and when he was no longer swinging
wildly his feet joined his hands and he hung onto the pipe like a
monkey.

Unfortunately, the pipe
was too thin to last very long, he only prayed it would hold until
they passed. The 7 guards met with the 3 guards,

"Anything?"
Asked one of the seven.

"Nothing. Check in
the Filtration Room and continue the way we just came." Replied
one of the three.

Without much question the
seven guards entered the filtration room and swept it while the three
guards continued on where the seven had just come from. James grunted
as he heard the pipe about to give way; he realized no one had heard
the same noise and when the guards weren't under him, he let go and
landed on his feet, immediately crouching to reduce the noise he made
when he landed. He knew that as long as there were guards present he
would have a difficult time, so training and instinct told him that
he needed to remove some guards from the equation and by entering the
Filtration Room, he had just that chance.

It would be difficult to
perform his actions without being caught, but since the entire room
was dark and no one had anything remotely similar to night vision he
wasn't worried as long as the power remained out. He headed to a
corner and grabbed his SC-20K Rifle strapped on his back, first
glance showed it was like a few rifles out there, but looks was as
far as similarities ended. With a noise and flash suppressor it was
about as quiet as his pistol, and with the additional barrel on the
bottom of the gun which was detachable to allow a sniper or shotgun
attachment, it could be used for heavy combat, long-range kills, or
LTL shots, for this mission and most, the Launcher Attachment was
primarily used and the Shotgun and Sniper Attachments were often left
on the Osprey since the rifle could fire in a single shot, a three
round burst or fully automatic firing. Plus, it was amazing how the
Launcher attachment worked, with a press of a button he could change
to one of the three LTL ammunitions without having to insert a single
projectile by hand which increased his speed, and all it took to fire
lethal rounds was another button press. Area 51, it seemed, was the
birthplace of some of this technology and James couldn't be happier.

With a press of a button
and a pull of the trigger he released a Sticky Camera onto the 4 foot
high water filtration tank, using the OPSAT he could maneuver the
camera and use it's various functions. He switched to night vision
and found 4 of the seven guards in front of the tank, a quick peek
from his corner showed the other 3 behind it. As soon as they
converged into one single point he pressed a button on the OPSAT, the
room was immediately filled with a loud whistle which startled the
guards, each pointing the rifles in different directions. James
smirked, it worked. "Check it out." Spoke a guard.

"Screw you. You check
it out."

"It's the intruder."

"Why would the
intruder whistle?"

"We're trained to
die."

"I have a newsflash
guys...I'm a coward."

"Yeah, thought I
smelled something."

"Shut up!"

"Let's all go, and if
we see anything we'll just fire the shit out of it."

"One should remain
here, just in case."

"Coward."

"I know." One
guard remained where he was, outside the range of the gas but the
other 6 slowly trudged towards the whistle, made once more by the
camera which had been planted 3 feet off the ground, exactly where
James wanted it to land. Once the 6 guards converged on the point one
sighed loudly,

"Nothing here but
ghosts and shadows."

"Shadows, maybe, but
I don't believe in ---" Before the guard could finish what he
was about to say, a press of the button self-destructed the camera,
and the gas knocked the guards out where they crumpled to the floor
nearly on top of each other. The remaining guard freaked out,

"Oh my god! I don't
want to die!" He was going to run away but James rushed to his
point and grabbed him from behind, holding the knife to his throat,
"A coward like you should provide information I desire. Speak
and I'll spill your blood."

"A- AH!" He
coughed as the knife pressed against his Adam's apple, he fell
silent.

"Alright, I'm feeling
generous today, tell me what you know about the intruder."

"Wha-what?"
James tightened his grip on the guard, "Only speak about what I
asked."

"Noth-nothing! We
don't know anything about the intruder. Only that they've been here
for the past 4 hours and killed one of our men."

"Any idea where he
might be?"

"Uh, we think he's in
the lower subsection, the Development and Testing area. It's two
floors down but with the alarms having gone off and everyone on high
alert the elevators aren't functional. The only way down is a heavily
guarded stairwell, or unless you can levitate I doubt you'll want to
use the elevator shaft."

"You've been very in
-- what's that smell?"

"Nothing."

"Ugh, gross."
James tightened his grip around the guard's neck and shut off the air
supply to his brain, after a little time the guard stopped struggling
and James let him down gently near his buddies.

He walked to the corner of
the room and clicked the Subdermal, "Alright, I'm heading to the
Development and Testing Area two floors down."

"Roger, we've
discovered that the stairs are heavily guarded and you'll be
discovered instantly. The elevator shaft that the man spoke of is
your best option." Lambert informed James, "Be careful,
this isn't going to be easy."

"My life hasn't been
easy, Colonel, and this is just another day." James clicked his
subdermal and headed out to the hallway, looking at his OPSAT he
determined the route needed and began heading that way.

* * * * * *

Finding his way to the
elevator shaft wasn't hard, and avoiding the few guards on the floor
weren't that difficult either, it was determining how to use the
elevator shaft without falling to his death that was the hard part.
He saw, with night vision, which he rarely switched off, that the
shaft went down at least twelve floors and the hard part was trying
to reach two floors down, which was exactly where he needed to be. He
shook his head though, realizing the further down he went the harder
it would be to escape if something happened. From one of the many
pockets on the Nomex suit he took out a thin rope with a mountain
climber hook on the other end. By hooking one end to a stable point
he could rappel down the shaft to the second floor, the problem was
finding something he could use to hold the hook. He searched around
and found the only thing he could find close enough was a door
handle, had it been a door knob it may have been riskier, but a
handle, as long as it didn't break, would be fine.

He attached the hook to
the handle and pulled hard on the handle a couple times to ensure it
would hold. The rope attached to the hook was made of thin material
but with the proportionate strength to hold up a 230 pound man,
thankfully James didn't weigh that much so he had no worries about
snapping the rope, it was snapping the handle that the 172 pound man
was more worried about. But with no other way to descend the shaft he
was forced to use this as his option, besides, with his gloves which
resisted heat and friction he could attempt to grab the cables
running up and down the shaft in case something went wrong, though
that option was slim at best. Backing up to the edge of the shaft he
pulled on the rope one more time to determine if it would work,
hoping it would, he jumped backwards into the shaft and gave enough
slack to the rope so that when it went taunt, it would bring him
against the wall with his head below the elevator floor opening. The
rope that was attached to the hook was also attached to a small
rectangular device located on the Splinter Cell's belt, the agent
usually used two hands for the belt, one to hold the rope and another
to hold the belt, which had a button on it to allow the rope to
descent at the speed the operative would like. In most cases the rope
would have to be released from the belt and left there, then a rope
would be pulled out from the belt and the hook would be replaced, but
Third Echelon was aiding in the development in the use of an
electrical cable which, when activated, would send a jolt to the hook
and release it from where it was positioned and another button on the
belt would retrieve the rope which would wind back up in the belt.
That was the one James was currently testing, the only bug was the
hook wouldn't always release which wasn't that big of a deal as the
rope was normally left behind. The new technology was to allow the
Splinter Cell the added benefit of rappelling without leaving
evidence behind...after all, he technically wasn't supposed to exist.

He reached the Development
and Testing floor, using his feet he pushed off the wall and allowed
himself to swing inside the floor using enough rope to land on the
floor on his back, where he used a button to release the hook, and
the other button to wind the rope back up in the belt. The device
worked perfectly for him, whereas other Splinter Cells hadn't always
had the same luck. The hook was placed back inside the belt in a safe
pouch where it wouldn't be in the way, and he continued his journey.
This floor, James immediately realized, was much more heavily guarded
than the previous floor, and the hallways weren't 7-men wide, now it
was only 3-men wide which gave James little room to maneuver past any
guards he would encounter. Luckily, or rather not so luckily, he
wouldn't have much time to encounter any M4 wielding guards once he
entered a laboratory.

Inside that lab was little
in the way of secret technology, it was actually full of caged
animals experimented on, James was a little sickened by their
treatment of animals in this way, but his treatment of humans hadn't
been much better. The animals were fairly quiet, some sleeping in the
darkness. The walls were lined with cages, some were empty and others
weren't, most of the animals were chimps, some were actually rats and
hedgehogs, one was a dog and there were two cats in separate cages.
In the middle of the room was a metal table about six feet long and
three feet wide, a wheeled cart was on the opposite side of the table
in the part of the room James was facing, two cameras were in the
room, one above the door and one at the opposite end though they
weren't activated. In the corner there was located a cabinet of God
only knew what, and next to it was a decent sized sink with plenty of
antibacterial soap. Next to the sink on the left facing it was a
container of biohazardous needles and a trashcan full of papers in
the corner next to James on his right. A small two foot wall was
erect next to James on both sides with a small gate probably to
prevent the escape of the smaller animals tested in the room, while
the door behind him was probably button activated to shut in case of
a larger animal release. The darkened room held many secrets, some of
which James wasn't interested in, though he would soon find one he
was searching for.

Immediately James switched
to Thermal, he saw the heat from the animals and one unknown in the
corner at the opposite end of the 40 square foot room in the right
corner. The size was probably that of a gorilla but there was no cage
in the corner as it probably had been removed earlier. James pressed
a button and switched to night vision and that was when he was forced
to jump behind the wall, he saw only two things before he jumped, the
sight of a silenced pistol staring right at him and the figure of a
human holding it.

He kept flat against the
floor, but rolled onto his back where he clicked his subdermal,

"Found him. He's in
an animal testing facility and just fired a shot at me." He told
Third Echelon silently,

"LTL, we need him
alive, Anderson!" Lambert replied, "But be careful, he
knows you're in there, so he'll do whatever he can and won't resort
to LTL tactics."

"I'm behind a two
foot tall wall with a small gate between, he's in a corner waiting, I
don't see a way to get to him without being shot at."

"Remember, your suit
can deflect bullets to a certain degree, get too close and they'll
penetrate."

"Got it, Colonel."
James clicked the subdermal again then grabbed his SC-20K rifle, he
switched to the sticky camera and peeked his head above the wall, he
noticed the agent was watching him through night vision, but hadn't
let off a shot. James fired a sticky camera above the agent's head
which prompted another silenced bullet wizzing towards James' head,
luckily the shot missed and he was able to lay back on the floor. He
opened the OPSAT and saw the image of the agent's head. Whoever it
was, he hadn't seen the camera firing and probably didn't even know
what it was. The agent was staring towards the door, he probably
hadn't moved in hours if information was correct. It was now a
waiting game and James wasn't in the market for losing.

Minutes passed, it was
becoming quite the boring event but someone had to make a move, the
sticky camera, unfortunately, was too far above the head of the agent
to stun him with the gas, but James thought that the whistle could
startle the agent into standing then using the gas, and he had to
try. Pressing the button on the OPSAT he allowed the camera to
release another whistle, the agent only looked up to the camera,
unmounted it from the wall and quickly through it towards James'
location. James grabbed the camera and placed it back in the barrel
where he would reuse it later. Something had to be done, this
couldn't go on for long and it was about time someone made another
move. James radioed to Third Echelon,

"Activate the lights
within 15 seconds, I need to take the agent and he's not budging."

"If we activate the
lights it'll take some time before we can deactivate them."

"I don't have a
choice, I need to take the agent down, now. I'll blind him."

"Okay, counting
down." Lambert began counting down the time from 15, James
switched to thermal vision and when the lights came on the agent
couldn't help but utter a cry of shock and surprise. James hurried
while the agent was trying to adjust his eyes after being hit with
bright light in Night Vision. He dashed out from behind the wall and
over to the agent, pointing the rifle to his head he held the trigger
tightly,

"Game over. You lose.
Drop your weapons and stand up, slowly." James ordered, the
agent did as he was told, he dropped his pistol and rifle and stood
up slowly. James positioned himself behind the agent and put the
barrel of the rifle to the agent's mid-spine area.

"I've got him."
James spoke to Third Echelon, Lambert replied,

"Good. Grim is
working on removing the lights again, it'll take a few minutes."

"I'll interrogate him
in the meantime." James then spoke to the agent, "Tell me
your name."

The agent spoke Chinese,
James was able to understand him completely though and even reply, he
was fluent in four foreign languages: Chinese, Japanese, Russian and
Spanish. Of course, he was fluent in English as well. Being a
Splinter Cell meant knowing the languages of where you were going,
otherwise you wouldn't last long.

"I'll tell you
nothing."

"Then you'll die
where you stand."

"Rather I would die
than inform you of what I know."

"He won't talk."
James spoke to Lambert, "I'll knock him out and bring him to the
extraction point." With a press of a button the rifle was set on
"Sticky Shocker",

"I would not do
that." The agent spoke.

"Give me a reason."

"Because I am
prepared to die." The agent, who had been in a position with his
hands over his head, wiggled a knife out from his sleeve and held it
in his hand while James was talking to Third Echelon, with a quick
move the agent back-kicked at James' knee, pushing him backward with
a bit of pain, the agent turned and jumped at James with the knife
going towards his throat. James let his feet give way and fell to the
ground on his butt, he fired a sticky shocker into the agent's
stomach and watched him shake from the electrocution then crumple to
the floor.

James replaced the gun on
his back, holding it there while he picked up the agent. The lights
went off in the complex once again and James carried the agent slung
over his shoulder while leaving the room. "I've got him."
James told Lambert, "Heading to the extraction point."

"Good job but we have
a change of plans."

"Oh yeah, what's
that?" James asked curiously.

"You won't have a
chance to escape the base through the filtration system now, they've
activated security measures to prevent that, and unless you want to
risk walking out the front door it seems there's only one option
left."

"Why do I know I
won't like this?"

"Because you need to
disable their SAM sites and hijack a helicopter."

"So now we're in the
business of stealing?"

"Just this once.
They'll never know it was you. Their main computer is on the first
floor where you entered through the Filtration System, reach that and
hack into their terminal. Grim will tell you how to disable their SAM
sites." Surface to Air Missile Sites, if activated the
helicopter James needed to take would never make it to the edge of
the base without being shot down.

"Okay, just a
question though. Who's Grim?"

"Anna Grimsdottir. We
nicknamed her Grim and it's habit."

"Well, long as we're
clear. Alright, so any more advice?"

"Just disable their
defenses and take a helicopter. If you can land it near the motorbike
you can use it to get to the extraction point but be careful because
they will follow you. Once you take the helicopter it's all about
speed."

"Alright, got it."
James left the subdermal on, he didn't care what they heard him say
or do from this point he just wanted to get out and home safe.

James only hoped he
wouldn't run into any guards, because with him carrying the agent
he'd have a heck of a time trying to escape them. Here's
hoping to good fortune. James thought as he
left the Lab and began backtracking to the first floor.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.